And So Let Me Die
by the Red Nothing
Summary: Skull Kid muses a few months after the events in Majora's Mask. Part One very dark and angsty, but with a happy ending. Read "Shinnoai" to understand it a bit better.
1. And So Let Me Die

  
  
  
Oh sure, say you'll forgive me before your hero... Lie. But you can let me die out here, because after months of this I'm beginning to feel that I deserve it.  
  
I look around myself in the pouring rain. I'm cold. No I'm not, I can't feel! Stop thinking like that, Skull Kid. You can't feel emotions, and you can't feel cold!   
  
It's been a few months since I tried to destroy the world of my own free will. What? It was Majora? That's not what THEY think...  
  
That Link person who stopped me.... He was strong. He said he'd be my friend. He was strong. He comes from my old land, Hyrule, the land I can never return to...  
  
I laugh a cold yet meloncholy laugh as a raindrop falls on my beak. The days of 'Mweeheehee' are over for good. Let me freeze in my own bitter Hell.  
  
I was born here in Termina, at the beginning of time.  
  
You don't believe me? Good. No one does.   
  
When I was little- I still am, but when the whole world was young, and not just me, I had five friends. The four giants and their sister.   
  
Yeah they had a sister. No, she wasn't huge. She was a little taller than me... She was human, sorta'...  
  
I wipe the water from my face. Not that it helps. My tunic is soaked as well, making things worse and not better.   
  
Maybe I should seek shelter, in that giant hollowed log? Naw. That log holds too many memories, and besides, if there's any slight chance that I may die out here, I'm going to take it.  
  
The girl had these really long claws, like sickles. She never used them, though. She and I used to gaze up at the sky, talking about the sun and the stars....  
  
We used to talk about why there was a big thing in the sky by day, many little things in the sky by night, but no big things in the night and no little things in the day.  
  
No, there wasn't always that grinning moon. Well, it isn't there anymore. As I gaze into the night sky, I think that maybe the only thing better about Now is that I don't have that stupid moon any more, so sometimes, maybe I can pretend it was just a dream.  
  
Through the rain, I can barely make out the stars. It's strange how much they've changed over Time, so many new stars that weren't there on my evenings with Shinnoai, and so many stars that had died.  
  
Mweehee. Older than the stars. Funny, isn't it?  
  
Shinnoai left with her brothers, the giants... Sort of. The others all walked off, leavin' me an' Shinnoai all alone, 'cept for each other. Then Shinnoai fell asleep, and as she hit the ground, she vanished.  
  
I So then I was all alone. Few peoples stayed after the giants had gone. But I was OK... 'Till that cursed moon appeared.  
  
I remember it... Even now as my limbs and heart slowly turn to ice I can remember it. It was cold when I woke up. Very late. A vision had filled my head, causing me to wake up, scream. It was Shinnoai, whom I hadn't seen in thousands of years...  
  
I am old. I am young. I am as old as time, yet gain no maturity. Ten hundred years ain't that long...  
  
....she was screaming, howling, as if her heart and soul were being ripped from her breast. I remember tears and screams and...  
  
I know you don't care. No one does these days. Not even me sometimes...  
  
...it was awful. Then it all reached a climax, tears mixed with blood. I don't wanna' talk about it. I don't really want to talk about any of this: I just want someone to hear this. You understand, right? Never mind, no one does.  
  
Then, Shinnoai's pain vanished from my heart -and so did her spirit. Something possesed me, told me to look into the sky There it was: The Moon, grinning, filling me with a new aura: Evil.  
  
I went on a rampage. I don't know why.... The moon.... It killed Shinnoai!! It was the cause of my suffering! But why the village? Why destroy that? I dunno... I'm evil, I suppose, and I should rot in Hell.  
  
Funny, that's what I've been doing lately, only my heart's been rotting, and my shell lives on.  
  
So they called the giants. They said....horrible things to me. How they would pull me apart and... Well, stuff only I deserve to hear. So I ran. That was all of my 'friends' -I'm certain Shinnoai had died after that vision- I ran all the way to Hyrule.   
  
I stayed there for awhile, in a woods where almost no one came. There were children there who resembled me; I had only to wear a simple mask to mimic them. I met a few fairy children- mostly lost- , and learned what my new people's name was.  
  
The Skull Kids.  
  
So that's when I became the Skull Kid. But then I began to feel old, and returned to Termina.  
  
  
If you're from around here, you know the drill: Skull Kid meets faires, Skull Kid tells faries he fought with his friends, Skull Kid befriends fairies, Skull Kid steals evil mask, Skull Kid summons evil moon to destroy the world, is stopped by a Hero, the whole shebang. Everything's peachy-keen. Well, my 'friends' were the giants....The 'fight' was a LONG time ago...and things ain't peachy-keen.  
  
After Link left, everyone took off their masks and revealed they hated my rotten guts. They used to let me inside Clock Town to buy food, but they chase me out with burning arrows now. The faries, Tatl and Tael, that's my greatest sin.  
  
You want to hear about it? Of course you do, listen to Imp's torment.  
  
One day, we all went to try to nab some food, and they unleashed the weapons on us for the first time. Tael died with the first shot; Tatl was mortally wounded, and died in my open palms.  
  
Damn them! Just damn them! I wish I had that mask I wish I had that moon I wish I wish I wish so I could crush them all and me with them I WISH...  
  
I wish Link had killed me.  
  
Well, there's one person still here who doesn't think I'm evil; His name is Mikau. He's a Zora, the guitarist of that band. Come to think of it, the Zora's don't hate me at all... Hm, must be Mikau's influence.  
  
Link has this magical relic called the Triforce. It's actually part of his body. He tried to use its power to bring the Deku-boy, Darmani, and Mikau back. He discovered he could only save one, and picked Mikau because not only was he the only one who had not been considered "dead" for some time, but he was a new father.   
  
I like his kids. I see them now and then. He only has two: The other five hatchlings died at birth. Stupid me, for telling those pirates the eggs would lead to treasure....  
  
Thunder crashes. I look to the east, and see it strike Ikana. Not the Stone Tower though: Just the ground. Strange.  
  
  
Well, Mikau was part of Link, and Link "understood" me, so Mikau does, too. He doesn't hate me, not even for what I did to Tatl and Tael.  
  
Too bad for him. I stand in my treetop perch, and gaze to the north, looking at the city that forsook me. I know further north lay the mountians, Darmani burried in his eternal sleep there. I look behind me, into the swamp where it all began. My tears mix with the rain as I at last turn east, the land where Tatl once told me she and her brother were born. As I gaze, I see something strange, errie, monstrous. It would strike terror into the souls of the giants -a funny phase, as I know them personally- ,but I am somehow calm. I do not know what is to come with my confrontation with this beast. I guess.... You'll hafta' watch...  
****************************************************************  
  
This is connected with my fic, Shin no Ai. I'll be revealing the confrontation in the 2nd and final chapter, told from 3rd person.  



	2. So That I May Live

  
  
Thunder and lightning bellowed and flashed as the strange creature flew toward the lamenting Skull Kid from the east. He hopped down from his treetop perch, wanting to be on firm ground.  
  
It was a lot like a dragon, that much Skull Kid could figure out. It was the size of a tallish adult human male, but as streamline as a Zora. Its wings were huge and leathery, like a giant keese's, and it had a tail that sort of resembled a Dodongo's.   
  
It appeared as if it were going to soar right over the Skull Kid, rain and sleet thundering into its leathery wings, but, as if by fate, it turned its dark, lizard-like head toward Skull Kid.  
  
Its eyes glowed red. It had seen him.  
  
It made a sharp arc, then hovered upright above Skull Kid. It had muscular arms and legs, and a strange scar on its stomach that he couldn't make out in the rain.  
  
It seemed to float like a feather to the earth, landing softly on sickled feet before the Skull Kid.  
  
He drew in a sharp and raspy breath. The scar was in the unmistakable shape of Majora's Mask.  
  
Skull Kid choked on tears and rain. He was delirious "S-So," he stammered to the monster, "are you Death?" He fell to his knobby knees, sobbing. Death did not move, nor blink, nor show any care at all."Pl-please stay y-y-you're Death, coming to take me aw-wa-way... I dun't wa-anna' be cold a-and miserable and..." A choked sob before Skull Kid screamed into the thundering heavens.   
  
"AAALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONEE!!!"  
  
He sobbed uncontrollably, hanging his head. Then, something he hadn't felt in eons and eons happened.  
  
A sickle came beneath his beak, so deadly, yet so gentle. When he had last felt it, it had been so much smaller; Now it was thick, and huge. The tip rested under his little beak, then brought his face up gently, so he could look into the eyes of its owner.  
  
Death's eyes were glowing slightly, but more of a happy, rosy color. Its dragon jaws curved into a smile, exposing its teeth, but somehow, it was a happy smile, something you wouldn't expect Death to be able to do. It gazed happily at him, looking into his eyes supported by her sickle claw.  
  
"Sh-Shinnoai!"   
  
She opened her jaws and spoke in an unearthly baritone:   
"Imp, it has been long.  
I am now Death  
Shinnoai is gone..."  
  
Skull Kid's joy was building. Alive! Alive! He didn't care she was a monster! She was back!  
  
"Shinnoai," he said softly, softly to a beast that would have made Gannon quiver and cry out in terror, "I thought you were dead. Maybe you think you are.... I guess I'm dead too. It's..." He smiled. "It's been a long time since anybody called me Imp. I've been Skull Kid....Skull Kid may be dead, but Imp's not. And you're always Imp's pal Shinnoai, and I'll always be there for you. Always..."  
  
  
He slowly walked up to the monster, and did the unthinkable: He hugged it.  
  
He wrapped his wooden arms around her leathery waist and cried. She wrapped her huge arms around his tiny shoulders, and Imp saw a drop of blood splash onto his arm. He looked up at Death's face, and saw her crying: Crying tears of blood.  
  
"You see this, Imp?" She asked, her voice quivering. "I cry blood for all I have shed. I've risen to take revenge, Imp. Revenge.... For Majora."  
  
Imp staggared. She?! Majora?! What?! But as his world began to blur in confusion, he grabbed hold of his thoughts, set them straight, and hugged Shinnoai tighter.  
  
"Well, whatever. He's gone... Majora and the one who killed him." He took a deep breath. "I know you know I was possesed by him. I don't know HOW you know, but I can feel it. And I know you think I'll hate you for wanting revenge for such an evil being... But I don't."  
  
Shinnoai gazed thoughtfully at him for a moment, then, without warning, shot up into the sky with a deafening howl.   
  
"Shinnoai! Shinni!! Please don't-"  
  
But then two talons grasped each of his tiny shoulders, carrying him up, up into the treetop once again. He was dropped on the comfortable place where he had been sitting before, and Shinnoai landed behind him. She took her wings and made a shell around Imp, protecting him from the rain. She stuck her head inside.  
  
"Do you remember the song?"  
  
{The Song....} Imp nodded. He slowly, softly began to sing these words to the tune of the Oath To Order:  
  
"Shiiin no a-a-i,  
Listen to my el-e-gy..."  
  
Shinnoai joined in softly:  
  
"Can the gods fall in love?  
Can the dead be set free?  
Or will all of our hears remain  
E-empty?  
Time shall tell,  
Both I~~ and thee...  
Shin no ai..."  
  
Shinnoai closed her eyes. It startled Imp a bit, as when she blinked, the lids came together horizontally, one golden lid coming from the right side of her eye socket, meeting another golden lid coming from the left side. It looked like her eyes had turned gold.  
  
"In my travels, Imp..." A pause. "I fell in love with Majora."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Shinnoai shook her head sadly.  
  
"It doesn't matter, Shinnoai. See? The gods fell in love! And the dead were set free!"  
  
Shinnoai blinked in her strange way again. "They were?"  
  
"Right," said Imp, "We're dead. We're free now..."  
  
Imp fell asleep against the leather chest of his old friend, and for the first time in eternity, he felt warm.  
  
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+  
  
I wake up. I am laying down in a tree, cozy and warm. The rain has stopped, and there is a beautiful rainbow to the west. I grin as I look at it; Mioko and Tsura are probably enjoying it as well. Laughing, I think of the two Zora children and their parents swimming in the ocean, Mioko trying to swim up the rainbow, Tsura shaking her little scaly head, and LuLu and Mikau smiling and laughing in the way only mothers and fathers can.  
  
"Imp?" A voice inquirers behind me. I turn around. There is my Shinnoai. My dear friend. She is no longer Death. She is just the way I remember her, her pale skin, her beautiful face, a perfect human except for her sickle claws. But that's all right, her claws are gentle.  
  
"Mornin' Shinnoai," I say, grinning. It feels good to be able to grin again. It's been so long since I could grin and mean it.  
  
"So want to go for a walk, Imp?" She asks me, smiling.  
  
I chuckle. It's been longer since I've done that. "I'd love that."  
  
Shinnoai and I walk up the rainbow together, hand in hand. I look down and see myself sleeping on the treestump where Shinnoai and I stayed last night. Sleeping forever. I start, but then the familiar happy figures of Tael and Tatl meet us half way up the rainbow and I grin. The four of us hear laughter, and looking down, we see the ocean, Mioko trying to swim up our rainbow, Tsura shaking her scaly head, and LuLu and Mikau smiling and laughing in a way only fathers and mothers can.  
  
The End  
  
  
  



End file.
